2
PowerPoint slides and Photos by Patrick Lana, MMR unless otherwise noted. Photos have been compressed to reduce file size so quality may vary. Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg, IL. This PowerPoint presentation is part 3 of 3 parts of a trip Kent Charles and I took June 9-20, 2010. The first part was to Cedar Rapids, IA for the NMRA Mid- Continent Region Convention. The second part was Rochelle and Union, IL. We finish with part 3 at the Friends of the Burlington Northern RR convention in Galesburg, IL.

3
Kent and I left Rochelle, IL at approximately noon on June 16, 2010 heading for Galesburg, IL and the Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Convention in Galesburg, IL. We followed US 34 to maximize our railfanning opportunities. Introduction

7
CB&Q Waycar #13593 On the way to Galesburg At the Princeton, IL Depot

8
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg, IL. Kent and I arrived in Galesburg at the Best Western Hotel about 3pm. We registered at the convention in the hotel and I met a lot of new friends. That evening we carpooled to the Packinghouse restaurant to have a wonderful meal. The Packinghouse is a historic meat packing building which still has the meat hooks and the cooling coils. After dinner we railfanned at the depot and then headed back to the hotel for slide and digital slide presentations. CB&Q Boxcar at depot

9
Eastbound Amtrak Train #380 entering Galesburg Station We were up early the next day (June 17, 2010) to catch the 7:38am Illinois Zephyr to Chicago. Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg, IL.

10
Illinois is Flat! From EB Amtrak #380. I was enjoying the rural view & modeling potential! Friends of the Burlington Northern RR on the train to Chicago

11
The Former Sears Tower. We arrived in Chicago Union Station a little after 10am. Photo taken as we were led by Dave and John on a quick-time march to the Roosevelt Road Overpass. Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Chicago, Chicago!

12
The Throat to Union Station from Roosevelt Rd. overpass looking North. Kent was in urban modeling heaven! Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Chicago!

13
Metra and Amtrak use this station Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Chicago Union Station

15
From the South side of the Roosevelt Road Overpass. Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Chicago Metra Coach Yard

16
Amtrak Yard to right. Looking South from Roosevelt Road Overpass. Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Chicago River

17
Boarding Metra to go to Lavergne. Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Chicago Union Station River DaveJohn

18
The motion and light made photography difficult. Friends of the Burlington Northern RR The Crew as we ride Metra. Kent John Dave Don Mike Aric John

19
Outbound Amtrak Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Action at Lavergne BNSF #1502 out of Cicero. Don Inbound Amtrak and outbound Metra. They were both flying. Amtrak almost blew me off the platform. John Outbond TOFC Train from Cicero

20
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Highlands Station In order to catch an inbound Metra to Union Station, we had to go further outbound to Highlands. By this time, we needed restrooms. Unfortunately, there are none at Highlands! Don Aric Dave John Mike Mike: “There are no restrooms!” John: “What?!!” Dave: “owww!” Aric: “I see a bush across the tracks!” Don: “I’ll follow you!”

21
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Highlands Station This outbound Metra is my last photo of the day (June 17, 2010). We rode Metra back to Union Station in time to watch the rush hour crowd stampede through the station. After a quick bite to eat, we boarded the 5:55pm Amtrak #383 Illinois Zephyr back to Galesburg, arriving about 9pm. My Thanks to Dr. John “Dad” Adams for shepherding us around Amtrak, Metra and Chicago. Without his guidance and vigilance we would have been lost.

22
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Peoria, IL The second day (June 18, 2010) started with a tour of the TPW East Peoria terminal. Boy, did they roll out the red carpet for us– donuts and coffee, great presentations and a wonderful tour PLUS a TPW coffee cup! Thank You, TPW!

23
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Peoria, IL TPW MI-Jack Mastpacker at the Car Shop, the first stop on our tour.

27
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Peoria, IL A Last Look At TPW’s Peoria Terminal the yard, car shop, fueling facility, general offices and loco shop. We completed our TPW visit around 11:30am and headed for a Peoria hobby shop John knew of. Since the shop did not open until noon we went to one of John’s favorite lunch places for delicious crepes. Then back to the Mike’s Scale Rails where I made a few purchases but Kent took the prize for buying the mostest for the leastest. We made some great buys because they were having 40% off almost everything for Father’s Day. Then back to Galesburg for a Railfanning Afternoon.

28
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Railfanning Galesburg, IL A Panorama view of the Diesel Shop, Fueling Facility & North End of Yard. Taken from the Hwy 10 Overpass.

29
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Railfanning Galesburg, IL An Eastbound Mixed Freight on the Main. Taken from the Hwy 10 Overpass. I thought this was a very colorful consist of locomotives but my FOBNRR friends were all excited because BNSF GP50 #3135 and BNSF GP39E #2911 were in the consist, still in BN colors.

30
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Railfanning Galesburg, IL Why shoot an empty gondola? Because I am a model railroader and am always looking for ways to make my gondolas look more realistic. This will help me model the inside look of a prototype empty gon.

36
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Railfanning Galesburg, IL And we end the day of railfanning with a shot of the DPU on a coal train near 170 th St.

37
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour After a brief introduction and safety briefing on the school bus, The first stop was the Locomotive Shop. Day 3 (June 19, 2010) started with a tour by Rick Danielson, BNSF Galesburg Terminal Superintendent. To be honest, I was exhausted after 10 days on the road and anxious to get home. But my new friends and the tour were so great I forgot about all that!

38
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour The first stop was the Locomotive Shop. We could look down on the work through a glass window and look into the building from the doors but understandably, we could not go into the shop area.

39
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour The Yard Tower Tour! Because of space limitations, we were divided into two groups with one group going up into the tower and the second staying on the first floor. Each group had approximately 30 minutes up in the tower. The first floor contained offices, a conference room, a much needed restroom and beautiful paintings by Greg Garrett, a BNSF employee.

40
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour The First floor paintings Although the photo quality is bad, I took this photo of Greg Garrett’s “Prairie Rockets” so I could remember it. You may see more of his paintings at http://www.greggarrettart.com/garrett/Originals/go or if you attend the 2011 FOBNRR convention in Gillette, Wyoming, you are sure to see Prairie Rockets and coal trains! I hope to see you there.

41
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour Up in The Yard Tower! Yardmaster Trainmaster Crew Caller TerminalSuperintendent John John

42
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour Dispatcher The dispatch desk-- she is routing Amtrak through Galesburg as we watched. The track diagram is spread over 4 computer screens! The right screen is touch screen for radio.

43
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour Trainmaster Note the Yard in the windows in front of him.

44
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour Yardmaster The Yardmaster is talking on the radio. By touching the screen to his left, he can communicate with various crews in the yard. Note the yard track diagram to his front.

45
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour Yardmaster The yardmaster’s desk includes a screen for cameras (6) located around the yard. He can rotate them to see almost everywhere in the yard. After I had spent some time with the yardmaster, I thought he had slipped something new under the computer screen that shows the camera views. Only when I got home and looked at this photo did I see what it was

46
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour The Hump Engines on the Hump! I was always under the impression that locomotives could not go over retarders but here was proof on the master retarder. John asked about this and they said that the locomotives were modified by raising the snowplows so they could clear the retarders. You learn something every day! Note the B unit in the consist which seems to be normal for BNSF.

47
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Galesburg Classification Yard Tour The Hump Before we boarded the school bus for the ride back to the hotel, I shot a last photo of the Galesburg Yard hump in action. Again, I must say the BNSF tour was one of the best I have been on. Now, it was downtown for lunch and to meet some new friends that would join us there.

48
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Group Photo After lunch we met at the display caboose near the depot for a group photo.

49
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Group Photo Dave John Peter Patrick PatKent John Gary Note: Not all Attendees are present. FOBNRR Photo Landon

52
Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Banquet The final event of the day and convention was the Banquet and auction. The meal was very good, the company was great and the conversation lively. Woody and Mark kept our table entertained with engineer exploits, old and new. Rick Danielson, Galesburg Terminal Superintendent was the keynote speaker and talked about the BNSF and Galesburg Yard, present and future. Thank you, Rick, for the BNSF hat and pen. I will think of BNSF Galesburg every time I use them. The evening finished off with the auction. Peter the collector was buying and so was Aric. I bid on some things but was soon left in the dust. I was presented with a BNSF 2010 calendar which will have a place of honor in my train room. With that, I bid my new friends farewell with a hope that are paths will cross again soon and that we may see each other next year in Gillette, Wyoming for the 2011 FOBNRR convention. FYI, On June 27, I joined the FOBNRR, my first membership in a prototype society.

53
At aproximately 9pm on Sunday June 20, 2010, Kent and I arrived home in the Denver, CO area. We had planned on stopping at the Strategic Air Command Museum in the Omaha area, but were just too exhausted and wanted to get home. Besides, Kent had to pack his Airstream trailer and head to the Airstream International Convention in two days! Of the 12 days we were on the road, I think it rained all but two. I still managed to take over 550 photos and Kent ran out of memory so had to purchase a couple of more gigs for his camera. My Mercury Mariner’s trip odometer said we had traveled 2,672 miles and had averaged 28.9 mpg. It needed a good hard wash to remove all those Midwest bugs. All in all, it was a great trip… Overall Trip Notes: FOBNRR BUT IT IS GOOD TO BE HOME!

54
This ends Part 3 of our June 16-20, 2010 report on the Friends of the Burlington Northern RR Convention in Galesburg, IL. Part 1 covered June 9-13, 2010 when we were in Cedar Rapids, IA attending the NMRA Mid-Continent Region Convention. Part 2 covered our June 14-16, 2010 trip to Rochelle and Union, IL. We hope you enjoyed the show!